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PKG_DELETE(1) FreeBSD General Commands Manual PKG_DELETE(1)
NAMEpkg_delete -- a utility for deleting previously installed software pack-
age distributions
SYNOPSISpkg_delete [-dDfGinrvxX] [-pprefix] pkg-name...pkg_delete-a [flags]
DESCRIPTION
The pkg_delete command is used to delete packages that have been previ-
ously installed with the pkg_add(1) command.
WARNINGSincethepkg_deletecommandmayexecutescriptsorprogramsprovidedbyapackagefile,yoursystemmaybesusceptibleto``trojanhorses''orothersubtleattacksfrommiscreantswhocreatedangerouspackagefiles.Youareadvisedtoverifythecompetenceandidentityofthosewhopro-videinstallablepackagefiles.Forextraprotection,examineallthepackagecontrolfilesinthepackagerecorddirectory(/var/db/pkg/_pkg-name_/).Payparticularattentiontoany+INSTALL,+POST-INSTALL,+DEINSTALL,+POST-DEINSTALL,+REQUIREor+MTREE_DIRSfiles,andinspectthe+CONTENTSfilefor@cwd,@mode(checkforsetuid),@dirrm,@exec,and@unexecdirectives,and/orusethe pkg_info(1) commandtoexaminetheinstalledpackagecontrolfiles.OPTIONS
The following command line options are supported:
pkg-name...
The named packages are deinstalled.
-a, --all
Unconditionally delete all currently installed packages.
-i, --interactive
Request confirmation before attempting to delete each package,
regardless whether or not the standard input device is a termi-
nal.
-v, --verbose
Turn on verbose output.
-D, --no-script, --no-scripts
If a deinstallation script exists for a given package, do not
execute it.
-n, --dry-run
Do not actually deinstall a package, just report the steps that
would be taken if it were.
-p, --prefixprefix
Set prefix as the directory in which to delete files from any
installed packages which do not explicitly set theirs. For most
packages, the prefix will be set automatically to the installed
location by pkg_add(1).
-d, --clean-dirs
Remove empty directories created by file cleanup. By default,
only files/directories explicitly listed in a package's contents
(either as normal files/directories or with the @dirrm directive)
will be removed at deinstallation time. This option tells
pkg_delete to also remove any directories that were emptied as a
result of removing the package.
-f, --force
Force removal of the package, even if a dependency is recorded or
the deinstall or require script fails.
-G, --no-glob
Do not try to expand shell glob patterns in the pkg-name when
selecting packages to be deleted (by default pkg_delete automati-
cally expands shell glob patterns in the pkg-name).
-x, --regex
Treat the pkg-name as a regular expression and delete all pack-
ages whose names match that regular expression. Multiple regular
expressions could be provided, in that case pkg_delete deletes
all packages that match at least one regular expression from the
list.
-X, --extended
Like -x, but treats the pkg-name as an extended regular expres-
sion.
-r, --recursive
Recursive removal. In addition to specified packages, delete all
packages that depend on those packages as well.
TECHNICAL DETAILS
The pkg_delete utility does pretty much what it says. It examines
installed package records in /var/db/pkg/_pkg-name_, deletes the package
contents, and finally removes the package records. If the environment
variable PKG_DBDIR is set, this overrides the /var/db/pkg/ path shown
above.
If a package is required by other installed packages, pkg_delete will
list those dependent packages and refuse to delete the package (unless
the -f option is given).
If the package contains a require file (see pkg_create(1)), then this is
executed first as
require _pkg-name_ DEINSTALL
(where pkg-name is the name of the package in question and DEINSTALL is a
keyword denoting that this is a deinstallation) to see whether or not
deinstallation should continue. A non-zero exit status means no, unless
the -f option is specified.
If a deinstall script exists for the package, it is executed before any
files are removed. It is this script's responsibility to clean up any
additional messy details around the package's installation, since all
pkg_delete knows how to do is delete the files created in the original
distribution. The deinstall script is called as:
script _pkg-name_ DEINSTALL
where pkg-name is the name of the package in question and DEINSTALL is a
keyword denoting this as the pre-deinstallation phase.
Note: The DEINSTALL keyword will not appear if separate scripts for dein-
stall and post-deinstall are given during package creation time (using
the -k and -K flags to pkg_create(1)).
If a post-deinstall script exists for the package, it is executed after
all files are removed. It is this script's responsibility to clean up
any additional messy details around the package's installation, and leave
the system (hopefully) in the same state that it was prior to the instal-
lation of the package.
The post-deinstall script is called as:
script _pkg-name_ POST-DEINSTALL
where pkg-name is the name of the package in question and POST-DEINSTALL
is a keyword denoting this as the post-deinstallation phase.
Note: The POST-DEINSTALL keyword will not appear if separate scripts for
deinstall and post-deinstall are given during package creation time
(using the -k and -K flags to pkg_create(1)).
Reasoning behind passing keywords such as DEINSTALL and POST-DEINSTALL is
that it lets you potentially write only one program/script that handles
all aspects of installation and deletion.
But experience has proved that this is a lot more difficult to maintain
and is not as advantageous as having separate scripts that handle each
aspect of installation and deinstallation.
All scripts are called with the environment variable PKG_PREFIX set to
the installation prefix (see the -p option above). This allows a package
author to write a script that reliably performs some action on the direc-
tory where the package is installed, even if the user might have changed
it by specifying the -p option when running pkg_delete or pkg_add.
ENVIRONMENT
The environment variable PKG_DBDIR specifies an alternative location for
the installed package database.
FILES
/var/db/pkg Default location of the installed package database.
SEE ALSOpkg_add(1), pkg_create(1), pkg_info(1), pkg_version(1), mktemp(3),
mtree(8)AUTHORS
Jordan Hubbard
CONTRIBUTORS
John Kohl <jtk@rational.com>, Oliver Eikemeier <eik@FreeBSD.org>
BUGS
Sure to be some.
FreeBSD 10.1 May 30, 2008 FreeBSD 10.1